OK, about 4k miles ago I replaced my clutch. A day or so ago I noticed a low toned whirring sound coming from the engine area. Today after driving I looked underneat the car and noticed a little puddle of gear oil and noticed that there was definately a leak probably coming from the drivaxle. Well, I drove it straight home, about a minute away and pulled it into the garage. After jacking it up and looking at it, the leak seems to be coming from the driverside driveaxle seal. I did not replace this when I replaced my clutch. The driveaxle seemed a little loose, and moved around back and forth a bit more than the passenger side. So, I pulled out the driveaxle and noticed the little locking ring that is on the spline was really loose and semi bent. I did not replace that either. I believe that cause the loose fell in the driveaxle. Well, I think I lost about a 1/4 of the amount of gear oil that was in the case. I drained it and it only filled a little more than 3/4 of a gallon. So once I replace the seal and ring do you think the tranny will be ok, or is there some serious damage? The car was shifting fine and felt normal. Is there anything else I should check or replace while its all out? Thanks.

 

Doh! This was supposed to be in the 4th Gen forum. Oh well. It's semi general I suppose.

 

Mikey did you break it again? Good luck with it man.

 

Well well well... before this post gets contaminated this adds yet another person to the list. If you have play in the driveshaft while in the tranny theres a good chance the carrier bearings are shot. It should have ZERO play. The way the bearings are, they are tapered in a cone pattern, so there shouldnt be play. If its leaking from the seal, then its almost a certainty.

The locking ring on the splined shaft of the axle is normal. The differential bearings being shot wont cause the shifting to feel any different. But, keep in mind that bits of metal chunk are being sent thru your other transmission parts. But most of it should have collected in a cleaner magnet that is at the base of the tranny.

You can get your trany fluid examined by blackstone labs or such. They can tell if theres a high metal content. If there is, then thats another indicator.

let me guess, you have around 60K on the odo as well?

 

hmm... anything stated after Eric's comments are pretty much worthless...
I was going to say that my 3rd gen had a problem with the axles not being fully seated in the differential, and they would pop out and leak fluid.. that was on my VG auto though.

my VE 5 spd is another story. it's in a big plastic tub on the floor of the tranny shop right now. 2nd and 4th gears are shattered and the shift forks are broken. (this is what street racing does to a tranny).

Soooo, I'm going to have a new tranny and LUK clutch tomorrow, and a $2000 hole in my Mastercard to prove it.


Now.. Eric.. since you seem to be the guru here..

I had an ACT in there before.. the shop swears by the LUK and laughed when I suggested another ACT..
So I had him put the LUK in it (since it was in stock. ACT would take an overnight from somewhere and cost another $100)..
so did I do right, or am I going to regret the LUK decision?

(and YES, I drive the car hard. I'll admit it. I told the shop that before they ever dropped the tranny, and it was confirmed when they opened the case)

 

And yet another reason I'm so happy I baught an AutoMagic!

Sorry to hear about your tranny problems BlkStnValyMaxima, but it appears that some 5 speed trannys eat Def. Bearings. Make sure the shop that replaces them shims your tranny correctly. This has been determined to be the cause of most failures. To much preload on the Dif. bearings. Check out www.motorvate.ca for a nice write up on what causes these bearings to fail.

 

Mike, sorry to hear that man.

 

Well, actually I have 93k miles. It's been driven hard since I bought it 40k miles ago. Do you think once I put a new seal and ring back in, the leak will go away? I know you mentioned the carrier bearings but I'm just not sure the axle was in all the way, or is that directly related to the carrier bearings? Anyway, thanks for the insight.

 

Putting in a new seal is only a temporary fix. The play you mentioned will merely stretch the seals again and then your back to square one. BTW, the ring being split and looking 1/2 hanging off is normal.

The axle "looks" like it isnt in all the way when infact it is.

 

I'm not familiar with the LUK clutches, but if its of reputable quality then it should be fine. You're still relatively around stock power right? No NOS or S/C...

 

Ummmm.. only until thursday. there's a hairdryer looking thing supposed to be bolted onto my manifold. only will be running 5.5 PSI at first until I can get things tuned.. then I'll buy one of those big silver radiators I see on all the supras and DSMs around here.. they said once I do that, I can run my A/F gauge to 9psi without problems. I'll see what blows up after I get the new tranny broken in.

Disclaimer: Yes, I do know what I'm talking about. if you keep from flat out saying you're installing a tu**o next week, it keeps the morons from finding it in search and asking you 1,000,000 questions.

 

I thought this was a secret....

Oh no......now the countless questions.......and posts polluting the General Forum.....

 

Hehehe... There Matt goes again... noone should give him any cats to put in a bag, cuz he always lets them out.....

 

I just had my seal replaced due to leaking fluid, but since it was done under warranty I wasn't able to inspect very much. I still suspect bearings, but I'm interested to see 1) if that's the case and 2) how long it takes to tear the seal and leak fluid again. I'll report in if I have any more problems, but let us know if anything happens with yours BlkStnValyMaxima.
-hype

 

Uhhh, since when was this supposed to be secret? my plans have been public since December.. I'm just still waiting on the parts. I haven't said much of anything about the setup (for obvious reasons) or who's doing the install or anything like that. that's nobody's business but the people directly involved, and I haen't made that known to anyone that doesn't need to know.

But yes, it is scheduled to go in next week. that's all I'm saying. I've been saying that since the beginning of the year. thank you, drive through please.

 

That's funny, because I thought the other person that is involved in this asked you why you were telling people. Maybe I misunderstood him.

Don't get snappy with me either because I know where you live and I will hurt you!

 

Please remove the Rustang name from this forum since you have a real car now.

If you start issuing a name change request now, maybe Jamie will get it done for you in the next few months........

 

Man I wish I had a urbotay.

Matt->

 

Nah... I think I'll spare Jamie the task... not like I'm here that much anyway...

Plus that would mean I would have to sit here trying to think of a new name... that would be a pain....

 

MinimaHater

Speedy2.0RSX-S (scary if you do this)

Acura>Nissan

 

LOL, names like that will make people around here hate me more than they already do... not to mention make me look like Russ. Heaven knows I would NEVER do that.

 

Evil Bill convinced me to keep my name, so you should keep yours too. Otherwise I might think you're a guy and start flaming you for driving a slow car

 

Just cuz I can't afford the car you are getting doesn't mean my car is slow! :P

 

Did you get a 6-spd?

 

Yes, I did. Type S only comes in 6 speed...

 

I'm too lazy to shift gears

 

This thread was originally informational, but thanks to the help of the moderators I'd say we're a little OT I guess you guys are more human than most people would believe
-hype

 

I know! Thread Hijackers! Well I'll turn it around a little bit, I just bought my axle seal and retaining ring thing. I'm going to put it back together now.

 

Yeah guys.. GET BACK ON TOPIC! stupid moderators.
I'll hopefully be picking up the car today with new tranny. they said it was almost back together two hours ago (12:30 central) and should be done by the end of the day.

 

Update:

Put the new seal and retaining ring back in. The axle seemed to go in much tighter than it was before I took it out. It hardly had any play now unlike before I took it out. I drove it for about 5 minutes down the road, went up to about 50mph. The loud humming noise which some think is there differential bearings seems to have pretty much quited down. It's parked in the garage with cardboard under the tranny just in case. Ok, so I was trying to think about some things other than the carrier bearing that would cause my axle to become loose and also for the seal to leak, then I remember a couple things. My front wheels almost fell off while driving because the lugnuts had become so loose (don't ask), that caused alot of wobbling and unecessary strain I'm sure. Then I also remember my lower strut bolts had also come loose and I could actually move the wheel around while it was on the ground (like push it back and forth). So those are a couple things I thought of other than the fact that I didn't replace the seal the first time I pulled the axle out. Tommmorow I'm gonna drive it around more and hopefully nothing will happen.

 

update..

new tranny and LuK clutch in. total damage: $2000.
what I paid for the car a year ago: $2800.

ouch.

results? the clutch pedal is so light, I thought it was broken when I first got in. my pedal has NEVER been that light, not even with the stock clutch.. ACT was even firmer.
don't care at this point. clutch has an 18mo warranty. if it dies, I'll make them put an ACT in it because that's what I told them to do and they talked me into using a LuK clutch.

 

Another Update:

Tranny is leaking again from the drivers side axle seal. Looks like Eric was right, the carrier bearing must be toast. I suppose I'm gonna look for a used tranny because I need to leave to GA in 6 days. Anyone in the NE have a car that they're not using? Lol.

 

It's already leaking again? How many miles have you put on the car since the seal was replaced? I haven't really checked mine yet, but I figured the seal would be good for at least a thousand miles Maybe I should check out my seal again to see if I'm leaking fluid. Thanks for the update
-hype

 

I drove around about 50 miles. This afternoon I looked underneat and saw a little beed of gear oil on the bottom of the tranny. The side was wet, and when I felt in towards the groove on the case it was definately oily in there again. All I have to say is...This sucks!

 

Damn 50 miles is nothing. I've put on at least 300 since my seal was replaced. I'll defnitely check that out tonight.
-hype

 

http://members.aol.com/ericdwong/images/img000003.jpg is a pic of what the bearing in question looks like. See how its a cone shape? Should be zero play. That pic isnt too clear, but you can see how the rollers have "spalling".

http://www.motorvate.ca/images/sm_bearing2.JPG shows it real well close up.

 

Thanks, so I guess it's gonna need a rebuild eh?

 

Eric, this is a year later, but maybe you're still listening in.......now that I have to change the outer boots on my '94 GXE, I'm getting lots of resistance and the axles don't want to come out.

The service manual isn't much help; it shows a screwdriver being used to pry between the inside face of the inner joint and the differential case. I tried it, and got nowhere fast. It also sez to remove the right axle first; it makes sense, since the left axle is obstructed from below by a part of the case and you can't reach in far enough to get near the inner joint.

Do you have any tips on removing a stubborn one? Do I have to drop the Y-pipe and/or the engine support to get at the bolts that connect the right side support-bearing-carrier to the engine block?